Tuesday 19 June 2012

No Magic with a formal Business plan



“Does a business plan really work for start-ups?”  I doubt. Most fresh starters see a good business plan as a key to success. Unfortunately, a study has shown that there is no relationship between a business plan and revenue. Meaning a good business plan does not necessarily guarantee a successful venture.
Most top American and European entrepreneurs never had a business plan at start-up but had a complete idea of societal need, the market, their target audiences, their product and a ‘compelling discipline’ to take action, and for me that is the best business plan. That is why I recommend these for fresh starters,
  1. Have a mental plan or an outline of your plans
  2. Take that step to find out who your audiences are, and what they need
  3. When you do, sell, sell, sell.
Action comes first; writing down every detail may never get you on your feet, take actions to keep your business desires burning. Does it mean the business plan concept’ should be discarded? No, but if you are serious with starting a business, you need ‘business planning’ more than you need a ‘business plan’. Writing a business plan before you start, can quench that burning desire, but you can start with a clear roadmap of what you want your business to be, and as you grow, you can have a written business plan.
What do you think about the relationship between business plan, and business success?

POSITIONING YOUR PERSONALITY part 2


You may have a very good character or a wonderful personality, but all of that could be rubbished if other people perceive you as being otherwise. That means you can’t influence them positively, because the position you occupy in their mind is an important element of influence. This is one secret great businesses use to keep their consumers connected to them. When people can’t identify what you are living for or standing for, they disconnect.
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You have many behaviors that sum up to form your personality, and these individual behaviors that make you, appeals to different people. And since we cannot please everybody, we go for a character that truly speaks of our person. According to Witness Lee our character is our very person.
       There are various approaches to positioning your personality.
(1)   The informational approach: Providing information on what is most unique about you to others. You know yourself better and only you can point out that distinctive feature you want others to know about you.
(2)   The symbol approach: This is the use of images or symbols that represent or say something about the personality you want to portrait. For instance, Union bank using the stallion to depict strength and reliability.
(3)   The comparison approach: This is stressing your personality superiority when compared to that of another person.
Make it a duty to point out that unique feature you know others will need to know about you.

POSITIONING YOUR PERSONALITY part 1




 In one of my postings, I viewed life as a product and a bundle of benefits. In this edition, I will be discussing the need to communicate these benefits to others. Positioning is an important factor in personality development. Remember, you are in the best position to tell people what is good about you.

A lot in business is about perception, perception and perception. When Tiger Wood had a problem with his wife, the first decision that Accenture made was to withdraw their sponsorship. Why? The management didn’t want the brand to be associated with a man who is considered ‘unfaithful’ to his wife. What has that got to do with their business? – Perception. Accenture built their brand on integrity, and may not want their clients to see them as being behind a man that lacks integrity.  

People’s perception of you, is the whole essence of positioning.  In Marketing, Positioning is an act of strategically communicating your distinctive features or characters to others. Put in another way, you tell your story how you want it told by others.